I’m moving onto the 16th episode na nga pala ng Code Geass.. Zero will be confronting Cornelia na, hehehe; and I just recently started with One Piece—from the pilot episode, looks like it’s gonna be one helluva addicting series, too. Monkey D. Luffy is an interesting and wacky character; will probably rival Radical Edward’s, a fave in Cowboy Bebop.

5.30.2009

Yup, I know, its kinda abrupt.. no teaser write-ups, no warning shots whatsoever.. just bam! And here we are, at the end of all things. (applause!)

At the end of the first season (the 60th post), a season which was nicely ended (with the last entries covering an entire subject on why do we blog), i mentally took note that each season should ideally comprise of 60 episodes each—I know, its kinda long; Heroes ended its first season with merely 23 episodes, hehehe—what I failed to do, was to inform you dear reader of my intended format. And so here I am, profusely apologetic of this sudden ending...I’ve new readers who are just warming up to my writing style, just having stumbled upon this, the gentlest of the gentlest blogs in existence here in the blogosphere for chrissakes.. and here i am breaking to you the sad news. Cruelty? Nah. (thanks for following me btw, new followers!) Gentle just wants to rest and devote some of his time to some other things he has been neglecting for some time now.

If you are a regular reader you would’av easily guessed that this whole “I’m-ending-this-season-tis-the-last-you’ll-read-from-me” thing has something to do with the fact that I’ve decided to go back to exercising in the gym. I was foolish to think that closed door dance workouts, yoga and running from time to time will cover all the exercises needed to maintain a delicious body worth salivating for; it was a mistake, closing my gym membership, almost two years now. Well, I could’av survived with the set-up, actually, but what did me in was my naturally HUGE appetite that craves for merienda, even knowing that I just finished eating lunch or dinner. Hehehe. I’m not talking ‘bout dessert; ya know, that sweet little thing that you eat right after each meal? I’m talking ‘bout those medium sized meals unto themselves that you take in to fill those relatively long hours in between the proper meals. Hehehe. somehow nanay thinks it’s just natural though, to crave for meryenda after dinner. Kunsintidora ba. :)

So there. Back to square one, I suppose? I found this gym near my address (well actually, isang sakay pa ng jeep—but its ok). I conducted an ocular inspection one night, after office hours, walking the stretch of shaw boulevard; it took me almost an hour’s worth of walking endlessly, to finally find the place (as it happened, I was walking along the opposite direction pala, hehehe. kamusta naman?) the instructors were very accommodating, touring me around the gym to familiarize me with their facilities. We haven’t closed on any deal that night, but I left the place with my mind made up. If funds become available this june, and boy, they will, there’s no turning back. :)

And so where am I, exactly, at the closing of Backseat’s second season? I’m in my room here at the province, typing away on Gael. It just stopped raining and I’m about to go down to finish washing my socks and undies, which I left temporarily to check on Geloy and CJ playing “Heroes of Might and Magic” on my desktop PC in the other house across the street. Then all of a sudden, it rained really hard, like the sky’s about to collapse on us with all the rain it could muster—so I was stuck for a good one hour. With nothing to do, powerless to cross the street to the house where I left my laundry, I decided to write and make myself productive; trying my best, in words, to console avid Backseat readers who might feel they have been cheated with a sudden announcement of a season ender.

Well, here it is, anyway.

Goodbye for now; Backseat’s eight-month run was one helluva rollercoaster ride in the emotions department, but you stayed anyway, gentle reader. Surely this won’t be the last you’ll read from me. Season Three won’t be far away; as they say in Showbiz, I’m just gonna be ironing things with the management before the new season pushes through with the pilot episode. Starting this june, the production team will be very hard at work to ensure quality production in terms of top notch sets, riveting plotlines and special effects, come airing of episode one, hehehe. tsup. Stay tuned.

5.27.2009

Change bedsheet.. check. CDs littering the floor put on the shelf.. check. Empty water bottles put in the trashbin.. check. Dirty clothes counted for later delivery to laundry shop.. check. Dirty socks and undies packed away to be washed personally by moi at the province..check. laptop and celfone chargers already in the backpack.. check. Whew. Now at least my little home away from home has that semblance of a home after that mild clean-up of sorts. I really ought to seriously clean the place sometime soon and by clean, i mean really clean. Some days ago i had the heart pounding experience of flushing down a rat i found swimming in my toilet bowl early one morning—how’s that for an early morning cardio workout, then huh? before its just cockroaches running the length of my walls,(of course i have my handy tsinelas to take care of em..for good) now, its rat on the menu. I wonder what’ll be next?! Calling animal rights activists in the neighborhood!! ;P

But for now i think that single effort will suffice, as i have to go home today. Took a one day leave from the office so i won’t worry getting home late at night; i used to opt to head home directly (by home i mean the province) after my last day of office work but i sortof changed strategy so i can drop by trinoma to buy northpark taipao for ate and nanay. Yesterday, the three-day seminar ended; i can’t be doing anything much at the office now, even if i chose to work this one single day, as the weekly work schedule i plotted for myself was ruined anyway when i decided to accept the seminar assignment, so its better off to take the day and run some special errands before going home, right? Ate made lambing last time that she kinda misses the taipao, so its taipao i’m gonna hunt for. But that’s gonna be after i deliver the laundry to the nearby shop.. and had some breakfast filling my tummy. Ciao.

5.25.2009

i am currently at the national library of the philippines, blogging away. :) totchal, di ba? hehehe. the office sent me and an officemate to a 3-day seminar to update various skills needed to better dispense our librarian duties. i didn't know it included blogging, hehehe. the seminar's program stated that 2nd day will focus on web design; true enough, we were introduced to a slew of html programing jargons; midway through the lecture though, the speaker (who was my batchmate during the board exam i took some years back) probably saw the knotted foreheads in front of him and decided to shift to something more fun--free blog hosting sites over the net! hehehe. most of the participants were greenhorns and so it took them quite sometime to acquaint themselves to the new blogging environs; so what does a seasoned blogger do in these (ho-hum..) trying times? blog to death! haha! despite my familiarity with UP's main library building, whose expansive 4 floors are solely dedicated to housing the university's voluminous collections, i still found the national library as an imposing structure. from the outside, the building just exudes taste in design. i can easily place its facade alongside government buildings depicted in hollywood movies, and it won't look out of place. my officemate who previously worked for the national library said that the entire collection covers five floors. i took the opportunity to get oriented by an "insider" and asked her to play tour-guide to this wide-eyed promdi (hehehe). i must admit that i must have looked like i just saw the mrt pass me by for the first time. hehehe, nakanganga ba. she brought me to the rare collection of the filipiniana section where she used to work; running my fingers through some personal documents of gregorio del pilar with his signature no less, brought me to tears. hehehe. exaj lang. :) though i would have loved to stay a bit more to see the rizal papers, because of time constraints, we found ourselves going back to the philippine normal univerersity for the second-half of the session. sigh. that would have surely made my day. hehehe. well, i can always go back some other time to run my fingers through lolo jose's signature. :) the afternoon session involved a recap of the morning demo at the national library. when ed the lecturer passed me by, i told him we were batchmates during the board exam. seeing that i already have an existing blog, he didnt bother to discuss tech stuff with me but rather talked bout des (a common friend) and her recent demise. we didn't have much in common except her so even though it pained me to talk bout her last days (and her wake) i swallowed it like a bitter pill. well, i've to say byebye for now, as the participants are slowly leaving the room. 5 o'clock na eh. have to head home na din. ciao!

5.19.2009

people at work just got hold of the controversial hayden-katrina sex video.

i've seen worse things than that, and will not play immaculate and pure; but watchin the controversial video knowing that hayden orchestrated everything to capture on screen what should remain hidden--and on top of all that a clueless katrina, all my heart goes to her and my repulsion to him. some said that she deserved what she got; even going to the extent that its her karma, for having an affair with a man who's currently in a relationship. still, others speculated that because she looked like an expert, doing all "expert" things in the video, that she's probably doing it, not only with hayden, but as a sideline to augment her showbiz earnings as well; playing escort to politicians and businessmen in between shootings and guestings. people could be very cruel, passing judgment like that. even if that were the case, we really cannot know her own circumstances--things that pushed her to doing those allegations, if ever they were true. what escapes me is why oh why, that with all this katrina muck-raking, hayden seems to emerge scratch-free. is it because he's a man, and this society entitles him to do whatever his little black heart wishes, regardless of who will be the casualty? it sickens me to think that behind that angelic face, something as cruel and perverse a mind could exist; damaging somebody's reputation for what? for the pleasure of hyper-boosting one's ego. and they say there are lots of hayden videos to follow. tsk.

These are but a few lines I found myself reciting last night and early this morning, alongside lyrics from musicals I grew up listening to, and some other trivialities of Hollywood and other media. Hehehe. I dunno if it’s just me (well, it really is just me, who else is there to point to), but I find dwelling on the little details a very interesting exercise for the brain and the emotions as well. It’s a librarian’s characteristic, I think, to be very keen on details, that some people might find it a bit bordering on the insane and the lunatic. this has always been me as a kid; and last night, as I was havin coffee with a fellow blogger, the signs of lunacy manifested itself in full view.

What in the world am I talkin about, you might ask. Well we’ve talked about many things, actually, and because there is an unwritten rule in the world of blogging that you don’t talk about a fellow blogger behind his or her back, I’m not in the position to divulge anything that has been put on the table except harmless things such as trivialities. Hehehe. toward the last sip of coffee I found myself reciting things from musicals I listened to when I was a child. i say recite because I do not have the requisite vocal chords to translate ‘em into intelligible songs; so I just had to make do with recite hehe.

Blogger Alena was so transfixed with my so-called powers of reciting the lyrics from memory. And to think that it’s Miss Saigon from grade three. I told her that when I am so enamored of something, as in the case of a musical—the rendition of the songs contained therein—I tend to recreate in my mind the scenes depicted. at an early age of nine, I was able to immerse myself fully with the heart-wrenching story of a girl who mothered a bastard in Vietnam War. With that, I can say that more than anything else, I quickly learn using my emotions; no wonder that growing up, my playground became intense, highly emotional films, or music with thought provoking lyrics sung with an attitude the spells g-r-a-n-d.

And, as if my little recitation game last night wasn’t enough to hush up my restless mind, I kept on with my little game as I was riding the shuttlebus, going to work this morning. This time I busied myself with quotable quotes from the movies to preoccupy busy little me. Hmmm. I wonder what’ll be next. Hehehe.

5.15.2009

1. i'm taking back the earlier statement i made about facebook. Its one heluva addicting networking site. What i love about it is the twitter-like spontaneity of its shout-outs, allowing for feedback in a matter of minutes; and there’s also the levels of privacy / disclosure you can choose to assign to people on your friend’s list. I still have to fix the number of applications present in my application boxes though, as i rarely use most of them. I came to have them in my possession during my infancy in facebook when i didn’t exercise filtering—i just accepted all incoming request from friends; before i knew it i was swamped with applications i don’t have much use of, much less, enjoy. As my facebooking experience improved, so did my level of enjoyment. So now, i’m registering this entry as an amendment to an earlier entry where i lambasted people who were easily converted by the allure that is facebook. I’m in love.

2. This paragraph is dedicated to yet another new-found love : Red Mango’s frozen yogurt. I first encountered red mango through jamiedavinci’s blog, when he mentioned the trinoma branch as one of his project sites. Though he sounded, er, read very enthusiastic about fro-yo in that particular post of his, in truth i just dismissed the product as another ice-monster wannabe, which i didn’t really enjoy upon first taste of it, some years back with cleng, during one of our foodtrips. Then came the subsequent print features in newpapers/ magazines that just jumped at me. the color scheme utilized by the product is so warm, that something in my mind just clicked upon seeing it. In one of my walks at megamall after office hours, i chanced upon a newly-opened branch, and decided to give it a try. The yogurt itself comes in two flavors, the original and the green tea flavors, respectively—i chose the original one as base; to which i added blueberry and chopped almonds as toppings. The verdict? Heaven in a cup.

3. The third in this love triangle post is the one i went to last night : my favorite spa in quezon city which i haven’t visited in months. Before the morong, bataan outing, i have already planned to schedule a massage there; but because i’m already quite removed from the vicinity, and going there after office hours would be a tedious task, i kept on putting it off until last night, when the urge became too unbearable, hehehe. i reasoned out, since my birthday came and went, i ought to get a little pampering done. The massage i got last night wasn’t a spectacular one though, basing it on the standards of my earlier visits, as my favorite masseur is currently preoccupied with an earlier request when i arrived; instead, i was relegated to an uninspired massage from one of their newbies, i think. But maybe because i was too tired from all the walking i did, prior to getting there (i had an earlier errand/ request from sis), it didn’t seem to be too bad at all—as i found myself falling asleep as my sore muscles were kneeded by codename "uninspired-newbie-masseur". For that wala siyang tip. Hehe. The sauna was good though, as all the excess water in my body trickled like fresh spring rain to hungry gutters.

5.11.2009

i haven't really put on much weight that will necessitate the president of this land calling for national emergency, but i have been putting on flabs in the midsection that's quite alarming, in the sense that, before, i can already see a glint of muscle forming underneath the skin... now its just flab stretched miles and miles in my tummy area... waaahh!!!

ok, there's always yoga, which builds strength, muscle definition and flexibility that is a dream come true for all fitness enthusiasts. but yoga is not your ordinary exercise that you just get on whenever there is time. it actually demands concentration in a way that's also emotionally consuming. having said that, it’s not everyday that one would choose to practice yoga as it requires a certain frame of mind. and you can’t always be in that frame of mind, trust me.

and then there's also the age issue.. is it age related? well, i guess. how else do i find myself in this lethargic bliss, if not for the aging cells that whisper, "you need to get rest from all that strenuous exercising, o most gentle one!", hence the week-long laziness that pervaded my joints. but that will be nicely countered by the observation that some ancients i know of do not stray from their fitness routine for even a second's blink. and here i am, barely out of my teens (in vampire years, that is) and is in serious need of overhaul. hehehe.

that was the pool of thoughts i swam in, as i rode the bus going to the metro yesterday. i am kinda missing the fitness first environs which I left more than a year ago, but given the current economic situation of the country in which this gentle being is very much a part of no matter how he tries to exempt himself, i am forced to look for a good alternative which won't bleed my resources dry should i decide to enroll in a gym again.

Enter the local gym that got into my attention when eyvicat handed me a flyer that was also handed to him, at dinner last night. In the months living in my current address, it managed to skirt my attention as it was a bit out of the way from my route, going home at night; though it’s not that really out of the way as just a few meters walk from the MRT will bring one right to its doorsteps. Or at least that’s what the flyer was saying. From the information printed, it looks as though it is offering the same amenities as that of fitness first, minus the juicebar and the television with the gazillion channels. “weights, sauna, treadmill, boxing”. And best of all, what nearly sold me is the monthly fee of Php 600 per month.

Hush, now, my subjects.. I guess a trip to the gym is scheduled, one of these days.

5.10.2009

As days roll by, it has become saddening to think that you can’t really hold onto things, to people; those who cradled you and held you as a child, your role models for the true, the good and the beautiful; those that played both major and minor parts in defining your happiness, shaping your memories as an individual—all of them slowly receding to oblivion; preoccupied with their own individual sorrows.

Standing there, i thought, i was happy here, once. I was carefree and laughed in a way that real laughter should sound. I was a child here, once. Filled with joy and surrounded with love.

Now things are in shambles, rickety, and beyond repair. I don’t know what else to think. I don’t know what else to feel. This intensity is now making it apparent that i haven’t downed enough gsm blue this afternoon for me to feel the requisite numbness enough to compel me to lose touch with reality. Happy birthday to me.

5.09.2009

What a tiring day. I am writing this, at the eve of my 28th year, and 2 days of uncontrolled eating. I started my day, waking up with no definite goal in mind other than updating my music library, removing extinct links and streamlining my music to the stuff i currently enjoy; and retaining those that still work for me. Those that come from another era of taste—not necessarily that of a genre, i’m talking bout those things i previously enjoyed and now seems to hail from another time; a child’s taste in music—will definitely have to go. I am happy to report that nothing got accomplished of such grandiose a plan. I spent my day floating in a limbo of sorts. And no exercise, too. I just ate. And ate. And ate. And ate. Well, tomorrow’s gonna be my birthday ain’t it?

It all started Thursday night, when i went to my cousins’ house at ilang-ilang street, in commonwealth avenue in quezon city. The cousin i wrote of recently, died from the aneurysm attack she suffered. It was a sorta wake that i went to, except there was no corpse, no coffin to see physically. It was an online viewing for relatives, as she was in the U.S., working as a nurse when it happened. The desktop was turned on for the rest of the night going well into dawn, up until the time that i left for the province at around 10 in the morning, the following day.

The whole affair was the most un-wake-like wake (if ever there is such a word) i ever attended, thus far. instead of biscuits and coffee, we gorged on one of my cousin’s home cooked lomi noodles. Then one of my nephews, who is just about my age ordered roasted chicken and “crispy ulo” from nearby a lechon kiosk. We ate it alongside sips of san mig light and a Johnny walker black label that one of the nephews brought from his recent stint as a seaman abroad. We also had potato chips flowing in abundance to supplement the roasting. By the time one of the nephews took a picture to document the get-together (as everyone i know from that particular branch of the family was present that night) we were all so tipsy and smiling that the picture didn’t look like it was taken from a supposed funeral wake, at all. We did manage to say our prayers, though; and shed tears when gracie finally gave out her last words for her mom.

At around 3:30 in the morning when we retired to one of the assigned rooms for us, one of the nephews [kid kati] prodded me to treat him along with four other nephews present, to a nearby starbucks coffee house, rationalizing that it has been a while since we last saw each other and what is a starbucks, when it is your loved ones you are treating. At first, it all seemed like an ambush of sorts, as my wallet will definitely bleed from the overpriced coffee. But rationalizing to myself that it’s gonna be my birthday in three-days-time anyway, i gave in to kid kati’s proddings. And so the six of us walked to the nearby call center building in which a starbucks branch was housed. Along the way, i was already computing and sweating cold beads of sweat for the estimated cost of those six cups. Lucky for me, that when we got there the store was already poised to close and is no longer accepting orders. Hehehe. so we ended up at the adjacent ministop convenience store where they feasted on siopao and second-rate, trying hard starbucks frappucinos. Lucky me, indeed!

And so the gluttony continues til today. After hearing mass this afternoon, sis and i went to chowking to have an early night merienda at six pm, of congee and tokwa’t baboy. Arriving home, i made sure nanay had company (meaning, eat ulit... hehehe) while eating the siopao we took out for her and cj. Then i proceeded to make the fruit salad in time for tomorrow’s celebration, but that which already got a severe “tasting”, from the time i was whipping it, to the time we finished dinner at around 9:30 this evening. May natira pa naman for tomorrow. Haaayy.. haayyy talaga. At bukas pa ang birthday ko ha. Ayaw ko na kumain!!! Please!!

5.06.2009

It’s been 3 days now, since we have parted from the place; but I can still see clearly in my mind’s eye those small grains of sand staring back at me, up close and personal, as I melt to the ground in sitting forward stretch. Ah. Three days of mat-less yoga on sand, under palm trees, with nothing but the feel of sand on your feet. The sand sometimes, er, oftentimes, cling to your body as you perspire; and the sea breeze is at constant play, coming in through you and around you. Whew! Outdoor yoga has never been this visceral, I say. The practice truly rocked. Hehehe.

The late afternoon/ early morning jogs I took by the beach, really provided a sharp contrast with my city runs that spelled more like “health hazard” rather than “healthy”—what with all the smoke one is bound to inhale just by running in the vicinity where cars and other vehicles honk at each other to death. The sand provided an added challenge; I never thought it would be that hard; like wading through some thick, gooey syrup. I learned the trick early on, though; that to run more easily, one has to stay close or near the water; where the waves come-a-crashing on the sand. And running barefoot, besides the fun side of it, will only make the activity a breeze. I dunno, there’s just this thing that makes running barefoot a lot easier than struggling with the sand with your flip-flops on.

The beach was in Morong, Bataan. Earl, who found the place for the eight of us (Earl, Arnel, Eric, Noel, Francis, Gentle, Eyvicat and Jay) who went there last weekend in time for the May 01 Labor Day/ Pistay Dayat celebrations, chose it over the other place he had been eyeing, precisely because it was near the Ayala Land developed and managed Anvaya Cove. He posited that because it’s near Anvaya Cove, the sands must be pristine. And so we bought the idea. We went there half-expecting paradise. It didn’t turn out as we expected. Hehehe. It’s just a regular beach, much like what you will find in Pangasinan; but it served its purpose nonetheless—a breather from a tiresome city life. While I pretzelized myself on the sand—amazed to discover that mat-less yoga is the way to go in beach yoga sessions, my companions hunkified their physique by way of beach volleyball.

Arnel brought with him adobo that his aunt, who runs a carinderia cooked for us; and not to forget the divine brownies he himself baked that had eyvicat salivating to no end hehehe. when the food from home ran out, we survived with roasting hotdogs over fire and buying cooked food from nearby carinderias around. The strategy was a real saver, as the trip costed around Php2500—transportation, lodging and food for three days included.

Of course what is a night at the beach without good ole videoke bonding? As I am quite old-fashioned in my musical tastes, the group saw me singing Neil Sedaka favorites. Hehehe. I grew up with my dad’s taste in music, so there. They have no choice but to accept my singing with all their hearts, haha! Surprisingly, Earl also knows a tune or two of Neil Sedaka’s songs, so I didn’t turn out to be so far-removed from the present world at all.

And oh, there’s ghost-sighting, too; for what is a night at the beach without videoke sessions AND ghost stories? Hehehe. Among the group, it is Earl who claims to have a third eye, and that he can easily see spirits. He told the group that he saw a malevolent-looking ghost, an old woman who looked irked with the group’s singing deep into the night. He was clearly frozen stiff. When asked what she looks like, the ghost; what she’s wearing, characteristic of an Earl humor, he told us that Lola was wearing an empire-cut dress with lotsa electric pleats on the bodice. Hehehe.

5.05.2009

they say that days are like waves, crashing onto shore;a symphony slowly building into sweet crescendo;and we are but poorly made sand castles, waiting to crumble at the onslaught of such overcomingmagnificence

let me put it this way

I say that days are like waves, crashing onto shore;a symphony slowly swelling into sweet crescendo;and we are but sand castles swaying swirling with their presence--overcome by euphoria, even as the last of our towers descendgrain per sweet graininto murky sweetness

back[seat]story

search gentle

my name is gentle

i am a hopeless romantic. i am a sucker for the written word. i like shakespeare, as much as madonna or xtina. i curse, weep and howl. but i also smile the sweetest of smiles and bellow ear-shattering laughters. i am a connoisseur of visual and aural feasts--of all things ethereal and sublime ; ghastly and profane. i am a son. a brother. a loyal friend. a doting uncle. i am a librarian who enjoys pigging-out on his fave food in silence. i am butter melting deliciously on your tongue. a camera-whore who flirts with the lens on like, a regular basis. i am yoga-smitten. i live in the present, and jazz is my religion; but i am a schemer just the same--i plan, i execute...i dare to live in waking dreams. i am tragedy and success. i am beauty and ugliness. shadow and light. agony and ecstasy. cold as ice, hot as fire. take a deep breath... i am gentle. pleased to meet you!